Chris Kukk: What wasn't said in the 2012 election

Chris Kukk

Published 4:06 pm, Saturday, November 10, 2012

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Peter Drucker (1909-2005), a visionary in management and education who predicted the emergence of the information society and coined the term "knowledge worker," among other well-known concepts, stated: "The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

While we, the American people, heard plenty of negative communications (aka political advertisements) during the 2012 election, there was deafening silence on many substantive issues that will significantly affect the United States over the next several years. Three issues (among many) that I "heard not being discussed" by Democrats, Republicans nor the American media included: U.S. oil exports, new immigration trends and LIBOR.

Six of the world's largest oil companies and traders operating in the U.S. have asked the Department of Commerce for permission to export American crude oil. Crude output from U.S. oil fields has reached levels not seen since 1995. Fields in Texas and North Dakota are producing so much new oil that many energy experts argue that "The global oil map will be redrawn over the next five years."

A "historic shift" in oil trade has already been experienced in the Texas port of Corpus Christi, where its port authority has been doing something it hasn't done since the 1940s: exporting oil. Meanwhile, the U.S. is importing approximately nine million barrels per day. The silence of our candidates on this seemingly paradoxical import-export issue is disconcerting, especially when you remember what we did hear about energy: Solyndra and a new emphasis on "drill baby drill."

Two of the most important immigration trends over the last few years went missing from our national dialogue in the 2012 election. The first is the fact that illegal immigration from Mexico has been in reverse for at least three years.

The commonly argued idea that the U.S. needs to build fences and walls to keep illegal immigrants out is simply mistaken in that it doesn't reflect reality. As one report states: "Ten years ago, roughly 800,000 Mexicans crossed the border every year to the U.S., mostly illegally. Today the flow is the other way."

The other immigration trend that was lost in our national dialogue is the fact that since 2008, the U.S. has received more Asian than Hispanic immigrants. For example, while 31 percent of all immigrants to the U.S. were Hispanic in 2010, Asian immigrants made up 36 percent of the total. Demographics matter for every country (politically, economically and culturally) and our politicians treated such immigration trends as "antimatter."

LIBOR is the most important financial acronym that Americans don't know. LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate and it is a key benchmark borrowing rate between banks that affects the prices of energy, metals, and agricultural products. Equally important, LIBOR also influences our rates on credit cards, student loans, and mortgages. In short, the world's financial markets depend on LIBOR, which is a relatively closed and convoluted rate setting process.

This year, at least 20 financial institutions across three continents (including 12 of the world's largest banks) are being investigated for "rigging" LIBOR for their own financial gain at the cost of individual mortgagees, credit card holders, and students. One of the big banks, Barclays, has already agreed to pay a $450 million settlement for manipulating LIBOR. There is definitely more news to come and our entire election process has been void of any LIBOR discussion.

Add the fact that a recent analysis by Equilar, an American research group, shows that "15 bank chiefs enjoy 12 percent pay rises as profits and share prices fall" (the average pay is $12.8 million) and it all should sound eerily familiar to the 2007-08 financial year.

While this election spoke volumes about the negative effect of the Supreme Court's January 2010 Citizens United case on campaign financing, it was disturbingly silent on substantive issues that will affect America's immediate economic, political and cultural future. The silence about such issues echoed throughout the halls and chambers of our nation's capital as well as in the production booths and pressrooms of our country's news organizations.

"As we must account for every idle word," according to Benjamin Franklin, "so must we account for every idle silence." When will we, the American people, start to hold our politicians and media accountable for not only their "idle words," but "idle silence?"